EU to allocate $3.5 bln to Turkey within migration deal

The European Union will soon allocate a 3-billion euro package ($3.5 billion) to Turkey, promised within the 2016 Brussels-Ankara agreement to curb migration, the European Commission’s First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said Thursday.

"To ensure full and sustained implementation of the EU-Turkey statement, the next 3 billion euro allocation should be mobilized soon," Timmermans said in Brussels.

In November, EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said that Brussels could contract the initially proposed 3 billion euros under the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey program by the end of 2017 in full.

In March 2016, the European Union and Ankara agreed on a deal, under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis. The European Union vowed to accelerate the Turkish EU accession bid, introduce a visa-free regime, as well as provide financial aid to Turkey to cover the costs of migrant reception.